Pines' Labryinth
by Spiral Eyed Maniac
Summary: Based off the unused Season 1 episode premise, Mabel becomes obsessed with an 80's fantasy film, which is filled with Dipper's greatest and most irrational fear: puppets. When the villain of the film reveals himself to be a real person, he takes Dipper away and sends him to the land of puppets. Can Mabel save him, or will her obsession with the film overpower her?


Pines' Labyrinth

"Movie night!" Mabel shouted excitedly, long brown hair swinging as she burst through the glass push door to the video store. The young girl wore a bright green sweater, with yellowish triangles coming down the neck of her shirt like simplified rays of sunlight, serving as a collar of sorts. "Come on guys!" she shouted with her usual glee, a smile so wide that the details of her braces could be easily seen. "It's family time!"

Behind her was her great uncle Stan, wearing his black suit and red fez and her twin brother Dipper wearing his blue vest and orange shirt, head topped with his white and blue pine tree hat. Dipper sighed in agitation at his sister's over excitement. "Mabel, seriously?" He said in his scratchy, academic voice, "We just had that insane fishing trip yesterday…" He yawned, exhaustion creeping into his voice "Can't we just like…. curl up in separate rooms and ignore each other? Doesn't that sound more fun?

"I can't hear you over all these movies begging to be watched!" Mabel shouted in response, frolicking through the aisles like they were fields of puppy dogs and flowers.

"She's got ya' there short stuff" Stan playfully teased in his gruff, grumbling voice. "Now go on, pick out a movie so that Uncle TV can take care of you for a while so I don't have to."

Dipper gave a light groan, walking to the shelves. Quickly, something took him as amiss, as he began to observe the large, boxy nature of the movie cases facing him. "Grunkle Stan, are these VHS tapes? I thought video stores all upgraded to DVDs."

"Yeah, all the loser video stores did!" Stan said, with grumbled false enthusiasm. "Everyone knows tapes are better than DVDs! Working the tracking on your TV for the right picture, having to crank the film back together with a pencil when the tape spits it all out, having to wait ten minutes to go do anything after the movie so that the tape can rewind, these are all pivotal parts of the home movie going experience!"

Dipper gave the old man a look of agitated disbelief, which caused Stan to realize that his romanticizing of the antiquated technology wasn't going to clear him from his nephew's interrogation. "Okay, fine" Stan groaned in admittance "This is the only video store in town and I refuse to put in the effort that an extra 30 minutes with you two goblins would require, just to make sure you get your grimy mitts on "efficient" ", upon the word efficient, his voice rose an octave and his index and middle fingers on both hands scrunched down to his palm, "and "in production" technology."

Stan rolled his eyes at the boy, his arms raising into the air out of bafflement. "You should be more like your sister, " he said, pointing at the still frolicking young woman. "She gets it."

Mabel oohed and awed at the tapes in wonder. "Ooooh, the heartwarming true story of the 1984 Egyptian curling team? A movie about a rapping, jet pack wearing leprechaun played by Larry Bird? Old people movies are amazing!" she yelled gleefully.

"See?" Stan said, bringing his hand to Dipper's head and shuffling his hair through the hat. "Just the right spirit. Now, scram, go pick out a movie and don't take too long." Stan began to walk off to elsewhere in the store. Before walking further, he shouted to Dipper "And no going to the adult section unless under specific instructions from me for what to get!"

Dipper gagged slightly upon hearing this, making a quick paced walk to the water fountain, attempting to drown out the nasty flavor that the conversation had left upon his tongue.

Almost directly after completing his drink, he heard his sister take a harsh gasp. "Dipper, come quick!" she yelled to her brother, her voice singing as if she had just uncovered a glorious, golden treasure. Dipper hurried over to her, and saw the film that Mabel was now carrying in her hands like an ancient idol, staring at it in complete wonderment. On the cover was the face of a man with long, blonde and tall puffed hair, with eyeliner and glitter detailing the over the top nature of his presence. The look in his eyes were intent and hypnotizing, as if he were simply on that cover to draw in unaware passersby. Atop his head laid two words, in a shining, medieval font. The words spelled out "The Maze".

"Isn't it magicaaaaalll?" Mabel said, eyes glimmering at the sight of the box.

Dipper took the block and examined it. He flipped it to its back and read the details of the story. "A girl encounters the Gremlin King, and must traverse his maze to save her baby brother in this fantasy adventure… This… doesn't sound awful…" Dipper said, giving a small smile. "I could deal with watching this."

"YES!" Mabel shouted excitedly, holding the film up above her head like it was an idol to be worshipped. "Grunkle Stan, I found our maaaagiiiicccc!"

Dipper chuckled a bit, watching his sister run off. A store worker, in his sky blue, raggity uniform took attention to her behavior. "Man, that girl's got the right idea." he said, voice having a long, relaxed accent to his worked.

"Oh, is that movie pretty good?" Dipper asked the employee.

The employee scratched the grain of his poorly shaved face, chuckling a bit. "Dude, that's a Jack Sampson cult classic. Some of the greatest puppetry ever put to film, brah."

A chill was sent through Dipper's spine, and his pupils shrunk in terror. "Puh…puh…puppets?" His voice scratched in his horrified stutter. "D…did you say…p…puppets?" His eyes averted over to his sister and Great Uncle, who had just completed checking the movie out.

"Come on broseph!" Mabel shouted over to her shivering twin, beginning to run toward him. "We have a mystical movie adventure to get home to!" She pulled him by the arm and ran to the door, taking the limp, terrified young man with her. Dipper's face remained in a state of absolute fear, petrified by the thought of facing his phobia.

This was the face he wore throughout the whole feature.

In contrast, his sister wore an ear to ear smile. "Ooooh, this is so good!"

Behind them, Stan had fallen asleep in his recliner, a Pitt Cola can spilled on his white tank top and his snoring wrestling with the volume of the television. Dipper, through his shaking, fearful shivers, gasped out, "I envy you old man…"

In the film, a girl around the age of 14 and troll like monster far shorter than her had just escaped from a large, cartoonish burst of flame, by way of a door closing to another room. "My word, that was close!" The girl said, her delivery unnatural and accented with an awkward kind of flatness. "We were almost in serious trouble!"

"And you'll continue to be in serious trouble, my dear," said a slightly elongated, crooning, English voice. Onto the screen appeared the man from the cover of the film, wearing a shirt with enough frills that it almost gave the appearance of a coral reef barricading the back of his head, nothing but a small velvet vest containing them. His pants were tight enough to show bone. "Unless you give up searching for your brother, or….If you become my bride!"

"I'll never marry you—Lord Garrett!" the girl seemingly forgot her line for a moment, taking a pause

Mabel gasped. "Dipper, isn't this suspenseful?" she asked.

"y…yeah…" Dipper stuttered.

"Oh my dear girl," Garrett said "I'm afraid you'll have to, or I'll unleash my chimera on you and your friend!" A monster overwhelmed with furry felt jumped on the screen, moving toward the girl, obviously controlled by stick and underpaid puppeteers.

Upon its appearance, Dipper belted out a scream of pure terror.


End file.
